Dancing into the hearts of children outside Colombo
In Sri Lanka, ballet is considered somewhat of a rich kid’s pastime. While quite a number of fledgling young ballerinas have already enrolled in one of the many classes offered that’s largely limited to Colombo. Most trained ballet instructors are loath to work in outstation areas; that’s what Ranmali Mirchandani, the first ever National Manager South Asia for the Royal Academy of Dance hopes to change.
Ranmali needs little introduction. She was Arts Manager and subsequently Head of Programmes at the British Council for the past 25 odd years and also happens to be quite a well-known face in theatre circles. Earlier this year she moved on to work with the Royal Academy of Dance.
With over 13,000 members’ spread across 79 countries, The Royal Academy of Dance (RAD) is one of the largest and most influential dance education and training organisations in the world. Established in 1920 it seeks to improve standards and re-invigorate dance training, helping its teachers perfect their teaching skills and pass on this knowledge to their students. In Sri Lanka the RAD was represented by Deanna Jayasuriya for a while before being taken under the wing of the British Council.
There are over 1,000 students in full-time or part-time teacher training programmes with the Academy and each year, the examination syllabus is taught to more than a quarter of a million students worldwide. To instruct in the RAD syllabus and be eligible to have your students take on the RAD conducted exams, you must be a teacher who has obtained, among other things, a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Dance (LRAD). At present Sri Lanka has six of these qualified RAD teachers, each of whom has gone through years of training as ballet dancers and then as teachers to accomplish what they have today.
Foremost among them is of course Deanna Jayasuriya, perhaps the country’s most well- known instructor in the dance form. Deanna used to run her own school in London before moving back to Sri Lanka in the 80s and setting up the Deanna School of Dancing, which she runs together with her daughters Natalie and Natasha Jayasuriya. Natasha is in the process of obtaining the LRAD, and divides her time between Sri Lanka and Malaysia, where she prepares for the exam as part of a group.
Another well-known figure in local circles is Niloufer Peiris, who runs the Nelung Dance Academy. Niloufer has been RAD qualified for years, and she’s beginning to see a real interest in ballet surfacing in Sri Lanka. Then there’s Hannalore Imig-Jayasundara, who has taken over Wendy Perera’s (another RAD qualified instructor) Wendy Dance Studio for a while.
Ayumi Ratnakumara and Yashoda Soysa are relative newcomers, having obtained their qualifications very recently. Yashoda, who runs the Yasho Ballet School, says that the lengthy process of obtaining an LRAD is taxing but fully worth it. Ayumi ( of En L’Air School of Dance) agrees-“It’s not just about being able to teach as an RAD qualified instructor. You really do learn a lot, like when to judge if your student is ready to move onto the next level and to look at someone and decide if they have the right body shape to become a ballet dancer.”
Clare Merchant Andreou, an examiner with the RAD, says that it’s not just about knowing how to handle the physical aspects, but also the psychological. Clare is British but lives and teaches in Cyprus, and she’s been an examiner with the RAD for almost two decades. “Being a properly qualified teacher means you have a certain methodology in how you approach your lessons,” she says. “And of course having an RAD qualification is like a seal of approval; it implies that you meet very high standards.”
Since being appointed to the position Ranmali has already travelled to both India and Pakistan where she was surprised to learn even fewer RAD qualified teachers were in the circuit. Her mission is to encourage more and more instructors in the region to take on the qualification. That this happens in Sri Lanka is her greatest hope, because right now only students in Colombo have the chance to tackle the RAD-approved syllabus. “We’ve got kids coming in from Jaffna and down south for their lessons during weekends,” she tells us. “And that’s very heartening to see because it really tells you of their commitment and passion for ballet. This is why we want to encourage more teachers to get qualified-there’s a lot of opportunity up for grabs if you do!”
Interested in finding an RAD qualified teacher in your area or obtaining the qualification yourself? Contact Ranmali on radsouthasia@gmail.com